[aageneral] London - feel the magic by walking
Walking takes me around the great cities of the world in style, and it
saves me a lot of money as well. Consider London. There you can walk
and be guided at the same time.
When I was young and ran a publishing company in London my offices
were in Barnardâs Inn. This is where Mr Pocket lived in 'Great
Expectations'. Around the corner was a group of buildings which had
survived the Great Fire of London.
I mention this not to boast, but to show that in London you cannot
avoid history as long as you walk. Almost anywhere you care to stand
you are near a major historical site. For London, more than any other
city, is history. Noel Coward sang: âCockney feet, Mark the beat of
history. Every street, Pins a memory down. True. A lifetime is not
enough to explore all of the facets of this great and historic city.
A traveller needs to be selective. My own way of seeing London - and I
am still a tourist and explorer after all these years - is on foot
with a guided tour.
I am not, I must confess, that interested in modern London. Most
modern architecture I find a blot and an excrescence (do architectsâ
mothers know what their sons do for a living?) Most modern pleasures
pass me by. For me London, my London, is a wallow in history, not all
of it sunshine and light.
For the first-time tourist, one of the quickest ways of getting your
bearings is to go on one of the many guided walking tours. Here it
pays to specialise.
The general bus tours basically consist of being stuck in a traffic
jam in an open-topped bus while a guide makes fatuous remarks and
juvenile jokes. The walking tours are something else again.
They are normally led by knowledgeable types who are both eccentrics
and fanatics - England breeds these people in abundance. You will
learn more about London on one of these strolls through history than
you ever will through reading a history book.
For the full flavour, I recommend you do both - walk and tour first,
read second.
One of the better collection of walks comes from London Walks
www.walks.com/ with whom I have absolutely no connection except
as a satisfied customer. This is arguably the best walk organization
in the world. I speak from reasonably extensive experience. It has
walks on Jack the Ripper, Sherlock Holmes and so on. Typical price of
a walk is around five quid or so, but there are season tickets which
let you take as many walks as often as you want at about four times that.
My own favourite is the Dickens and Shakespeare walk which normally
starts on Sundays at 2 pm and takes you back through history and
fiction until you end up at the site of the old Globe Theatre. Then
you have a quiet jar at the famous waterside pub, the Prospect of
Whitby. Both civilised and educational. Leading this tour, sadly, is a
journalist who is also an university lecturer which, in class, puts
him at the bottom of the totem pole. But one should not be snobbish
about such matters.
There are dozens of these walking tours from this group alone and it
is my ambition to go on every one.
A word of advice. All such walking tours take from one to three hours
and they are never cancelled because of inclement weather. Forget
fashion. Wear comfortable shoes. Always carry a small collapsible
umbrella. I also carry a small hip flask in case of dire medical
emergencies.
Now that I am an Australian, on my last trip I decided I would try to
discover what Australian connections could be found in London. I found
there were far more than I had ever imagined.
James Cook lived at 88 Mile End Road in the East End and was married
at St Margaretâs Church in Barking. Captain Arthur Phillip was born in
Bread Street, EC4. Sir Joseph Banks was born in Argyle Street in the
West End and his house at 32 Soho Square was a centre for scientific
research.
Just behind the square is a pub confusingly called The Coffee House
which was one of the favourite Australian watering holes, 20 years
ago. Germaine Greer (who is an Australian whatever Australians may
say) drank there. Now the pubs of choice, although this will have
changed by the time you read this, are The Kingâs Head in the Fulham
Road, the Prince of Teck in Earls Court Road and The Greyhound in
Fulham Palace Road.
For me the essential handbook of London is Everybodyâs Historic London
by Jonathan Kiek (Quiller Press) which has 20 tours described in
loving detail. It seems now to be out of print but is widely available
through the Internet. Worth getting.
The tenth tour suggests you visit places with names which give the
wondrous flavour of London to perfection: Thomas More Street, Wapping
Old Stairs, The Ratcliff Highway, Limehouse Causeway, St
George-in-the-East and The Royal Mint. Walk these streets and visit
with history.
I was totally at ease with Dr Samuel Johnson when he wrote, âWhen a
man is tired of London he is tired of life; for there is in London all
that life can afford.â
There is, true, a nasty air of parochial smugness there. (Johnson was
also wrong on the subject of Scotland). But it is also true that no
matter how often you visit London there is always something to
explore, to visit, to enjoy.
Gareth Powell is a writer and publisher and lives in both Australia
and England. He has a travel website at www.travelhopefully.com and a
general one at www.bloggeroff.com
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saves me a lot of money as well. Consider London. There you can walk
and be guided at the same time.
When I was young and ran a publishing company in London my offices
were in Barnardâs Inn. This is where Mr Pocket lived in 'Great
Expectations'. Around the corner was a group of buildings which had
survived the Great Fire of London.
I mention this not to boast, but to show that in London you cannot
avoid history as long as you walk. Almost anywhere you care to stand
you are near a major historical site. For London, more than any other
city, is history. Noel Coward sang: âCockney feet, Mark the beat of
history. Every street, Pins a memory down. True. A lifetime is not
enough to explore all of the facets of this great and historic city.
A traveller needs to be selective. My own way of seeing London - and I
am still a tourist and explorer after all these years - is on foot
with a guided tour.
I am not, I must confess, that interested in modern London. Most
modern architecture I find a blot and an excrescence (do architectsâ
mothers know what their sons do for a living?) Most modern pleasures
pass me by. For me London, my London, is a wallow in history, not all
of it sunshine and light.
For the first-time tourist, one of the quickest ways of getting your
bearings is to go on one of the many guided walking tours. Here it
pays to specialise.
The general bus tours basically consist of being stuck in a traffic
jam in an open-topped bus while a guide makes fatuous remarks and
juvenile jokes. The walking tours are something else again.
They are normally led by knowledgeable types who are both eccentrics
and fanatics - England breeds these people in abundance. You will
learn more about London on one of these strolls through history than
you ever will through reading a history book.
For the full flavour, I recommend you do both - walk and tour first,
read second.
One of the better collection of walks comes from London Walks
www.walks.com/ with whom I have absolutely no connection except
as a satisfied customer. This is arguably the best walk organization
in the world. I speak from reasonably extensive experience. It has
walks on Jack the Ripper, Sherlock Holmes and so on. Typical price of
a walk is around five quid or so, but there are season tickets which
let you take as many walks as often as you want at about four times that.
My own favourite is the Dickens and Shakespeare walk which normally
starts on Sundays at 2 pm and takes you back through history and
fiction until you end up at the site of the old Globe Theatre. Then
you have a quiet jar at the famous waterside pub, the Prospect of
Whitby. Both civilised and educational. Leading this tour, sadly, is a
journalist who is also an university lecturer which, in class, puts
him at the bottom of the totem pole. But one should not be snobbish
about such matters.
There are dozens of these walking tours from this group alone and it
is my ambition to go on every one.
A word of advice. All such walking tours take from one to three hours
and they are never cancelled because of inclement weather. Forget
fashion. Wear comfortable shoes. Always carry a small collapsible
umbrella. I also carry a small hip flask in case of dire medical
emergencies.
Now that I am an Australian, on my last trip I decided I would try to
discover what Australian connections could be found in London. I found
there were far more than I had ever imagined.
James Cook lived at 88 Mile End Road in the East End and was married
at St Margaretâs Church in Barking. Captain Arthur Phillip was born in
Bread Street, EC4. Sir Joseph Banks was born in Argyle Street in the
West End and his house at 32 Soho Square was a centre for scientific
research.
Just behind the square is a pub confusingly called The Coffee House
which was one of the favourite Australian watering holes, 20 years
ago. Germaine Greer (who is an Australian whatever Australians may
say) drank there. Now the pubs of choice, although this will have
changed by the time you read this, are The Kingâs Head in the Fulham
Road, the Prince of Teck in Earls Court Road and The Greyhound in
Fulham Palace Road.
For me the essential handbook of London is Everybodyâs Historic London
by Jonathan Kiek (Quiller Press) which has 20 tours described in
loving detail. It seems now to be out of print but is widely available
through the Internet. Worth getting.
The tenth tour suggests you visit places with names which give the
wondrous flavour of London to perfection: Thomas More Street, Wapping
Old Stairs, The Ratcliff Highway, Limehouse Causeway, St
George-in-the-East and The Royal Mint. Walk these streets and visit
with history.
I was totally at ease with Dr Samuel Johnson when he wrote, âWhen a
man is tired of London he is tired of life; for there is in London all
that life can afford.â
There is, true, a nasty air of parochial smugness there. (Johnson was
also wrong on the subject of Scotland). But it is also true that no
matter how often you visit London there is always something to
explore, to visit, to enjoy.
Gareth Powell is a writer and publisher and lives in both Australia
and England. He has a travel website at www.travelhopefully.com and a
general one at www.bloggeroff.com
########################################################
Looking For Quality Content?
The Syndicator provides free, quality syndicated articles
for your website that are automatically updated each week.
Syndication feeds include:
Business/Sales
Internet Marketing/Promotion
Web Design/Development
Biz Tips
Web Design Tips
Home & Family Matters
Dinner Ideas
Health & Fitness
Horoscopes
AngelVoice
Headlines
and more...
http://www.web-source.net/syndicator.htm
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